jonathan talked about. look this week for the chamber of commerce to spend big on tv ads in ten house races from massachusetts to new york to illinois to california. when races establishment versus tea party challenges increasingly. remember when mitch mccobble talked about crushing the tea party increasingly among the establishment strategists using the word humiliate. they think they can win almost if not all of the primary challenges. thanks for sharing your sunday morning with us. see you soon. "state of the union" with candy crowley starts right now. ukraine on the cusp, the u.s. economy on the move. maybe. today, ukraine tilts toward civil war, weighted with east/west tension. >> if, in fact mr. putin's goal is to allow the ukrainians to make their own decisions, then he is free to offer up his opinions, but it can't be done at the barrel of a gun. >> the u.s. ambassador to the

ukraine, geoffery pyatt, joins us with a view from kiev. and then senator ron i don't knowson and congressman elliott engel join us on the choices for the obama administration. with the u.s. creating more jobs than at any time in two years. >> these are all good middle class jobs. >> translating those numbers for main street with economists mark scannedie and steven moore and "new york times" reporter annie lowery. plus -- >> i was banning mr. sterling for life. >> race in america and renewed questions about benghazi. >> how many more taxpayer dollars are we going to spend trying to proof a political point? >> anna navarro, gren eiffel and dan in a brazile. this is "state of the union." good morning from washington. i'm candy crowley. ukraine remains on edge today with increased violence in the eastern part of the country.

i'll get to ambassador geoffery pyatt in kiev shortly. first, two people who have recently been to ukraine, congressman elliott engel, ranking democrat on the house foreign affairs committee and senator ron johnson, heads the european affairs committee on the senate side. i want to start out what the president said, he had a press we are ger man chancellor angela merkel and came out to warn president putin of more sanctions in the offing. >> the russian leadership must know if it continues to destabilize eastern ukraine and disrupt this month's presidential election we will move quickly on additional steps including further sanctions that will impose greater costs. >> it seems to me, let me start with you, congressman, everything that the u.s. has done, the west has done to this point begins if w if this continues we're really going to do something harsher. what is the definition of disrupting these elections later in may?

>> well, the elections are scheduled for may 25th and i think it's very important that the elections go smoothly. putin is trying everything he can do to disrupt the elections and i think what president obama is trying to do is work in conjunction with european allies. they are much more reluctant to do anything against russia because they rely on russia. >> they're tied more than we are but the question is, i think if you'd look at what's going on in ukraine and the eastern part right now, you can pretty much predict that elections there are going to be a little tough. >> it really is spinning out of control and the sad fact is sanctions haven't worked. all the devaluation of currency, the devaluation of the stock market occurred before the sanctions were ever put in place. basically that all happened right after the russian parliament authorized use of force and that's when all that devaluation occurs. the sanctions and threats of sanctions had little effect. that's unfortunate. vladimir putin is only going to respond to action, strength and resolve. he's not going to respond to

words. that's what we hear when we go to ukraine. >> action is limited. when americans hear action, they think we'll send troops or do something which is clearly off the table and not going to happen. would you agree that the sanctions thus far have failed to move putin? >> i would say that the sanctions so far have graduated, have been gradual, and i think they'll continue to be gradual. >> have they affected putin's behavior? >> i think they've affected his behavior. he has all these troops poised at the ukrainian border. he hasn't crossed the border yet. i have to think that part of his calculation is if he does that, all bets are off and sanctions would kick in. i'm for sanctions. i think it's sanctions that brought iran to its knees because it hurt their economy and they're negotiating with us now and i think putin has to understand if he continues this nonsense, sanctions will bring his economy to its knees. his economy is floundering. he cannot afford to be so too wise about this.

>> the point some republicans are making that want stiffer sanctions now and more some weaponry to go to the ukrainian government is that perhaps the russian economy has been hurt and there are signs that has happened, but it hasn't affected putin, so sanctions that hurt russia aren't much good if they don't move putin. >> well, i think again, none of us know really what's in putin's calculation. debris. we need sanctions. i think we do need to consider giving military aid to ukraine. we need to let putin understand that any disruption, and i think merkel and obama said that, any disruption of the may 25th elections would bring a response from us. >> what is your definition of disruption in this case? i want to ask you, senator. >> we're seeing it right now. >> as far as elections are concerned. >> what we're seeing right now. we are seeing, you know, these russiansive thighsers and i would say really russian agents in many respects taking over administration buildings,

fomenting unrest and we're really seeing this erupt into real violence, people are tying and that's exactly what vladimir putin wants. he wants to destabilize not only ukraine but he's been undermining those breakaway republics for years because he doesn't want to see successful democracy on his borders. that destabilizes russia, threatens his party and that's what this is all about. it makes no economic rational sense for putin to be doing what he's doing. he's only doing it to consolidate his own power. we have to recognize that. nobody is talking about combat boots on the ground but he's amassing tens of thousands of troops and we're sending a couple hundred in. we need to strengthen nato, share training exercises and provide anti-tank weapons to ukraine. >> i wanted to ask you about that. this is the first time i've heard it, perhaps you've said it before, but you think we ought to consider giving actual lethal weapons to the ukrainian government because in essence, people who argue for this say look we're not going to go in

and help them. they should have a little more wherewithal. everyone understands they can't beat the russian army but when you're trying to crush this pro-russia uprising, maybe some lethal weapons would help ukraine at this point. >> i think it would, but i think that that's not it. look, our nato allies, the ones who were the former soviet bloc countries and former eastern bloc countries, they're scared to death. they think if putin gets away with this, they may be next. we have in nato article five which says an attack on one nato member is an attack on all. nato, the equation of nato since the fall of the soviet union has really been that russia would be cooperative. if russia is going to be an adversary, the whole calculus of nato needs to change and by the way, the u.s. provides most of the military aid to nato, the countries are supposed to do 2% of their economy for the military, if they're nato members, and they haven't. only three or four countries

have. it means that we're going to have to work in conjunction with nato because if we don't, and the nato alliance is dead. >> let me ask you to stand fwi with me. we have ambassador geoffery pyatt on the phone. mr. amambassador, thanks for joining us. i want to ask you first what is your understanding right now of the situation in eastern ukraine? >> well, candy, right now, i mean ukraine is a country in mourning. the prime minister yatsen jkuk fwhas odessa. thorng. he made the slice in friday was not just a tragedy to the city of odessa but the whole country. having spent time in odessa three weeks ago and having spoken with a broad range of political and society leaders there's nothing i heard or saw in that city which would explain what transpired friday night and i think it suggests that somebody wanted this violence to explode the way it did and i think at this point, the whole country is trying to figure out

what happened, how to pull together, and how to make sure that those who are trying to divide the country will not be successful. >> mr. ambassador, there's probably no time to beat around the bush. do you believe that russia and president putin are behind what turned out to be i believe the bloodiest day thus far in this back and forth? >> well, we certainly believe that russia is exercising influence across eastern ukraine. we don't have evidence of the russian role in the tragedy that transpired on friday. prime minister yatsenyuk used some very strong words today talking about the role he believes russia played and this is something we hope impartial and systematic investigation will be able to get to the bottom of quickly. >> when you're talking about the tragedy that happened friday you mean when pro-russian demonstrators were pushed into, back into the government

building they were occupying, apparently by pro-ukrainian protesters, and then the building was set on fire and more than 40 people died. that's what you're talking about, correct? >> that's partially, yes, but also the fact that you had pro-unity demonstrators who were targeted by pro-russia activists, some of whom appeared to have weapons, guns, and most disturbingly, there seems to be evidence in social media that some of the police in odessa may have been complicite in allowing the violence to explode out of control as it is. prime minister yatsenyuk already brought major changes in the security leadership here in odessa which i think reflects the deep concern about the role of security establishments in friday's violence. >> mr. ambassador the ongoing fear here is that president putin, with these clashes and with the movement of ukrainian

forces, trying to quell some of this violence. he now has the excuse he needs to move in. is that the consensus there? >> well, not at all. we hope that russia will play a constructive role. it's important to remember the other more hopeful event that happened over this long may day weekend was receipt leased of the detained ofce diplomatic military observers in slaviansk. russia played a role in that. it demonstrates russia has influence and can play a constructive role when it wishes to do so and we hope that's very much the approach that they will take in the days ahead. but this is an extremely delicate situation, certainly the extraordinary violence in odessa on friday has made the situation more. >> finally, this looks like a civil war, certainly sounds like a civil war. is there any reason to believe that's not what we're watching

unfold? >> no. i don't see that yet, candy. what i see is a society which is facing extraordinary threats at division, but where the dominant opinion in every public opinion survey from every ukrainian i talked to, how can we get our country to pull together again. clearly there are forces that are trying to deepen division and sadly some of the forces seem to be coming from outside the country, from russia, but the dominant mood in the country is how do we end this violence and how do we pull the country together again? >> ambassador geoffery pyatt, u.s. ambassador to ukraine, thanks so much for your time today. >> good talking to you. >> thanks. so back to you all. you see these pictures, you heard the ambassador. what does the u.s. do next? i feel like there are not a lot of arrows in this quiver. >> we've got an excellent ambassador in ambassador ppyatt

doing a good job. we have to understand how effective russia has been in terms of propaganda war. what are they lying to ukrainians about? telling them kiev is going to be sending death squads to pull people out of their homes. they say they're going to be forced out of their russian orthodox, ukrainian orthodox faith and into catholicism. >> the propaganda war. >> we need to counter that in a robust effort. >> i met with prime minister yatsenyuk when i was there. the most important thing they're looking for, those elections on may 25th have to happen and they have to happen so the ukrainian people can exercise their free will. it is so important. putin's role obviously or his game is to try to disrupt them and say they're irrelevant, and that they're therefore invalid but we really cannot let him do that. and again, putin has to understand that sanctions will

follow, tough sanctions on their banking sector, on their mining sector, on their financial sector will follow just the way we did for iran if putin doesn't stop his nonsense. >> to both of you, a final question. if putin decided tonight to roll those tanks across the border from russia into eastern ukraine, what stops him? >> nothing will stop him. this is hindsight but when prime minister yatsenyuk was here just asking for pretty reasonable request of small arms and ammunition, as a sign, as a sign of strength and resolve to support for ukrainians. unfortunately we didn't provide that and again, nobody can predict exactly what would have happened but i think it's that type of weakness that is given vladimir putin certainly the signal he continued to do these things with impunity. we have to change the calculus. >> what stops him is he understands if he were to do that, tough sanctions would follow from europe and the united states. i think that president obama is

starting slowly so we can be in conjunction with our european allies. he said there will be tough sanctions if putin continues this nonsense. >> i want to quickly ask you about a question that's out there in nigeria, where, in mid-apr mid-april, about 270 something i think nigerian school girls, teenagers were kidnapped by a terrorist group that is opposed to western education, who think western education is evil. there was an interesting article today and op-ed by nicholas kristof in the "new york times." "while there has been a major international search for the missing people on mh flight 370, there's been no meaningful serve for an even greater number of missing school girls. secretary kerry said this is terrible, the nigerian government is apparently not doing much to find these young women, we're told will be sold as wives to some of these

terrorists. kristof said we need the u.s. to do something. is there something the u.s. can do? >> one thing i believe the u.s. who has been way too silent on the brutality, the lack of human rights in the muslim world for women, and i think that's one of the roles i think the senate foreign relations committee can play there, hold hearings, highlight that so americans, so the world sees this type of abuse, so it really is about communications and awareness. >> one thing that's true, the whole world looks to the united states, whether it's in africa, whether it's in ukraine, whether it's in asia, there's no substitute for the united states, and my belief it we need to be active and engaged. it doesn't mean boots on the ground. there's so much we can do. >> we can gather an international force finding these girls, 270 teenage girls. >> america has to lead. that's what's missing. we aren't taking that leadership position across the world and that makes the world a much more dangerous place. >> i think we are taking a

leadership position but we have allies we have to work with them. i think we're doing it and i think putin understands that. >> congressman engels and senator johnson thank you for coming by. >> thank you. april was the strongest month for job growth in two years but wages are stagnant and the first quarter growth was almost zero. is the glass half full or half empty? that's next.

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dwrit and determination of the american people are moving us forward but we have to keep a relentless focus on job creation and creating more opportunities for working families. there's plenty more that congress should be doing from raising the minimum wage to creating good construction jobs, rebuilding america. >> that was president obama on friday, careful to not celebrate his victory lap or anything else over the strongest jobs showing in more than two years. i've got my wise guys around the panel here, steven moore, chief economist of the heritage foundation and author of "the wealth of states" "new york times" economic writer annie

lowery and mark zandi from moody's analytics. better than forecast, right? everybody's all excited and it was the best unemployment rate since the president took office, the best jobs figures in two years and then at the end of april, so about the time this was all happening abc news/"the washington post" took a poll and asked people how would you describe the economy? excellent, 29%. not so good or poor 71%. then you say again, nbc news/"wall street journal," what best describes your family's financial situation, getting ahead 21%, have just enough to maintain, 5%, falling behind, 22%. so 78% either think they're just barely holding on or they're failing. >> another amazing poll that came out about a month ago, half of americans say that the recession never ended and what that means is they just aren't feeling the effects of this

recovery. look, we got a good jobs report this week, we're all breathing a sigh of relief over that, but let's not forget, we also got a god awful gdp report for the first quarter, very, very low. >> 0.1%, right? >> that was backward looking and i think things are looking up but we're still way too slow to get the wage growth americans want. >> what pumps it up? >> the unemployment rate is still high. the more you see it come down the more that will help with wages. employers might feel pressure to increasing incomes. it's true, your average family has seen wage declines through the recovery. that hasn't changed yet. maybe it will soon. i this i there's pretty good evidence that growth is picking up but it remains even if the trends are good the state of the economy is still not great by any means, still high unemployment, still fairly slow growth. >> but we had a big hole to dig ourselves out of. the peak unemployment rate was 10% and here we are now at 6.3.

now we're very close i think to getting to a point where the labor market will are tight up, we'll start to get wage growth. once we get wage growth i think people's attitudes and perspectives on the economy will shift. >> one of the negatives and this was a great jobs report but one of the negatives about it, candy, which you all at cnn reported on was another big decline in the number of working age americans in the labor force and this has been a very strange trend that we've seen over the last four or five years. it's weird, because as the economy picks up and there's more jobs, you think you'd see more people entering the workforce. we've seen the decline. we're still, this recovery, i always go back to the reagan recovery as a comparison. we're still $2 trillion behind in terms of gdp of where we were in the '80s. it's still a flimsy recovery. >> you heard the president sound bite we played coming in. what we really need is an increase in the minimum wage.

would that help? >> i think it would help the people that it would help but it's a fairly limited policy. >> i agree. >> right, there are 300 million americans. the white house thinks this might help about 20 million. other people think it would help fewer than that and it just doesn't look likely. there's a lot of movement in the states, a lot of states and cities are raising their minimum wages and that's going to have an effect at the folks on the bottom but it's not helping people who are unemployed. it's not helping people in the middle of the wage distribution necessarily, so it's a fairly targeted policy. >> because only 4% or 5% of americans make minimum. the real issue is how to get middle income -- >> the help is immigration reform. >> really, unanimous yeses here? >> yes. >> goes back to what they were talking about, it's a lack of qualified skilled labor and the only way to address that in a reasonable way is immigration reform. >> there was a big story this week, the american economy two

stories about two companies. one was what happened to toyota, i don't know, toyota moved out of california, they moved to texas. there is a real recovery going on in the southern states. texas is actually booming. rick perry is running around the country saying we should make more. pfizer is an iconic american company saying they may move to europe to be their headquarters. what's going on there? if you ask me one thing i could do to help the american economy get our corporate tax rate down so companies aren't moving to europe or china but coming back here. >> to be fair, corporate balance sheets look really good. ? they're good. >> they have a lot of capital to deploy. if they felt like the economy was doing better, people were spending more, some of that would happen domestically. >> what helps is infrastructure. >> pipelines. >> no, we need all kinds.

>> right to the cost of doing business and if we can bring down the cost of doing business in addition to the tax rate. >> when you say intrafra structure it is read by a lot of people who think the government spends too much money as government spending. >> there say lot of private capital that wants in on develop our infrastructure, our telecommunications network, our ports, our rail, and all we have to do is figure out a creative way and we've got those ways and bipartisan ways of marrying private capital with government support. >> candy, you cannot talk about this american economy and what's happened the last five years without talking about the energy revolution. if you took out the energy boom that we've seen in oil and gas development over the last five years, there would be no recovery at all. virtually the oil and gas industry business has been carrying the american economy on its back. the exciting thing about this is that we're at the beginning stages of an incredible boom in oil and gas development. within four or five years the

united states of america, believe it or not, could be a net exporter of oil and gas, rather than an importer. so much of the growth in the economy is really in these states like north dakota and texas and oklahoma, and you just can't talk about the economy without talking about that. >> can i make a broader point, a year ago if we were sitting here we'd talk about desits and debt and the gridlock and the government shutdown. here we are talking about immigration reform, energy revolution, the whole conversation changed and that is a reflection of the state of the economy. we are now think being growth. >> as a final question, i have less than a minute. so when george h.w. bush ran for re-election, when people look backwards at his loss they saw the economic recovery coming in june but it was not enough to save him in november. right now the american people have zero confidence in this economy. how long might it take to turn that around? is there any hope that for

democrats looking for a much better economy that by november it will look good enough to change their fortunes? >> i think the democrats will be helped more by the current state of the economy than people quite realize. the trends have been pretty good, they've been pretty stable. we got that really wonky q1 dwrks dp number, that might get revised away or caught up and they'll be buoyed by the fact they have consistent growth. >> here's a forecast for you, election day november 2014, we'll be back at full employment. >> i think it's going to be too slow for the democrats in november. it's still, look, one month's jobs growth does not make a recovery. i remember talking about the summer recovery four years ago, what happened to that? >> thank you so much. stephen moore, mark zandi, annie lowrey. we'll have you back in 2016.

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as a general rule, things don't end well if the sentence starts, "let me tell you something i know about the negro." you don't really need to hear the rest of it. >> that was president obama last night's white house correspondents dinner here in washington. with me around the table, anna navarro and doen in a brazile, gren eiffel of pbs, also the offer of "the breakthrough: politics and race in the age of obama." i have to say i thought that was a great joke because there is truth in that. it was almost him saying you don't have to listen beyond that. and so i think my question to you all today, it's the first time we've had the talk about this is, what was the point of this week and the nba and for that matter the rancher in nevada? did it move us forward?

>> i have to say my favorite piece of the clip is the cut to the black tie, white people, all laughing nervously at the joke. which gets exactly to the heart of this problem here, is we are so uncomfortable when we talk about race and that we are happy when someone goes so far over the pale, when someone is so ridiculous that we can all agree that it's offensive, that we can all agree he's racist otherwise we don't want to call anything racist. we want to pretend the black president means we are beyond racism. it's interesting to me how worked up we get about clyde and bundy and donald sterling for good reason but how worked up we don't get worked up about sterling's housing discrimination or clyde and bundy's squatting on federal land. >> we don't punish actors. we punish the sayers who vocalize something. >> exactly. >> we focus so much on the hole

rather than the doughnut. >> the lesson of clyde bundy, the lesson of sterling is racism exists but racism is not acceptable. you can be a racist but you better not let anybody know about it. if they do, you're going to pay a price and you should because society is not going to look the other way and not pretend because you're rich or because you're there or you're a political figure it's not happening. there is a cost to racism and needs to be figured out. >> to gwen's point there wasn't a cost to some of the things the nba observer did when it came to housing and trying to get minorities out of his housing complexes. there wasn't any of that, so it does seem to me that when someone says something so blatantly racist, it's like low-hanging fruit. we go oh, this is terrible, but when it comes to how about the education gap, how about income disparity, how about, you know, any of these multitude of things that we could be talking about. >> here we are having a conversation about race 60 years

after the brown versus board of education decision, 50 years after the landmark civil rights legislation, probably the most significant piece of legislation in the 20th century in terms of eradicating barriers and still we have barriers, we have structural impediments that keep african-americans, latinos and other americans from truly achieving the american dream. it's because we like to talk about the superficial, and we like to use the old language of the 19th century and we're afraid to figure out in the 21st century how we end these so-called glaring problems in our society that requires policy decisions, and nobody wants to talk about policy. >> it also requires, donna, consistency. one of the things about this nba l.a. clipper thing that most bothered me and i think has not gotten as much attention, he had been given an award by the l.a. branch of the naacp and was about to receive another lifetime award. >> correct. >> they had, what, sold themselves for a few bits of silver in this guy knew he was

going to do what, whitewash his record by giving donations? >> and the chair stepped down which is a good thing. the naacp is in the business of promoting justice and equality for all people. they're not in the business of promoting bigotry, and i don't understand the policy behind the donation or what was being awarded to mr. sterling, but the point is, candy, is that in the 21st century, we haven't figured out the language yet. we haven't figured out the policies, and therefore, we have to constantly go back to the past to see if we could reach some conclusion. >> i could say one thing to what ana said it's not okay to be a racist if nobody knows about it, it's not okay for racism to be practiced as long as you don't say it out loud. we are punishing people for spoo etch in a society that prizes free speech and yet not punishing them for actions and i do think what we have underlying the outrangiousness is a plot of problems which are unaddressed and speak to the things that cappedy was talking about. when you talk about education,

you talk about who is getting good education and who is not and how much that falls along racial lines, who is incarcerated, who is not and how much that is the president's talking about, falls along racial lines, who gets opportunities and who doesn't. i don't think that that is insignificant and it's just something we don't seem equipped to deal with unless someone says something outrageous. >> paul ryan got himself into a bit of trouble when he talked about the inner city and after a visit that he made there, talking about poverty and the inner city and a culture of people who didn't want to work or that kind of thing. so he was immediately jumped on. this week he went to talk to a congressional black caw douse further explain and he came out and said one thing and i want to play you elijah cummings in the meeting right after hearing paul ryan. >> the point i've been making all along we are marginalizing and isolating the poor in our

communities and we need to stop that doing that in our country. >> he says that he's done a tour of the united states and learned a lot and i think it still has a lot to learn. >> politicians are almost the worst people to have this conversation about, because what paul ryan was to be is what we say we want him to do, get out of his bubble and see. if you don't agree him basically you don't agree with his budget, think his budget is going to harm his constituency which e elijah cummings believes, so's that's about politics, not what he was attempting to do, broaden the conversation, the thing we say we want. >> i'm notme comfortable lumpin paul ryan with this other conversation. >> i'm not trying to do that at all. actually my point was has it become the third rail of culture, because paul ryan is now like every word that comes out there is the fear that you

will say something that's going to be deeply offensive. >> that's true but we need more paul ryans in the u.s. if you ask me. i am grateful and happy that paul ryan is going to some of the latino centers and touring the country and learning more. that's what we want out of our politicians. >> the back for it was sort myself point. >> they live in their own little world in wisconsin, while he's been out all over the united states in some of the poorer communities and he was inarticulate but paul ryan is one of the good guys and trying to make positive things. >> i'll let you make that point when we come back and wrap it up. i have to take a quick break. you guys will stick with us. when we return, wrapping up this conversation and courage to benghazi >> this is the smoking gun that shows they were consciously trying to manipulate the evidence. >> benghazi, benghazi, benghazi. why aren't we talking about something else? ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon.

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ana and a half row -- >> now i'm nana. >> and don in a brazile and gwen ifill. donna, put a button on this talk about race. >> i would hope in this historic year of celebrating so much progress that we can have some way of talking about what change looks like in the future, how we address the growing demographics in the country, the multiculturalism. diversity is a strength of this nation, it is not honoring, you know, programs that provide inclusion and people who understand that to grow our economy, we're going to have to have a diverse work force as well. it's a broad issue, that's all. >> in our next show, we'll decide how to do that. we've got ideas. >> i've got to give you kudos and the team on this program kudos, because as we know, the

sunday shows are dominated by white men. not this program, not today certainly. >> thank you, ma'am. i want to move on to benghazi because it is back in the news. it actually never really left the news. but there is some new information that came from a memo from ben rhodes who is a deputy national security adviser to the president in which he talks about, look, the point of these sunday shows is to show that this was about a videotape and not in a resurgence of terrorism. it's not a quote. and so this week we have had had john kerry subpoenaed by one committee for not handing over information, and we now have an independent -- an investigation, special committee, to investigate benghazi. this is what harry reid had to say. oh, i'm sorry. here's what he said. for republicans to waste the american people's time and money

staging a partisan political circus instead of focusing on the milgd class is simply a bad decision. while republicans try to gin up yet another political food fight, senate democrats will remain focused on fostering economic growth for all hard-working americans. >> there were five protests across the arab world in four cities, 50 protests across the world in general. i have read the benghazi report two times. they want to write another report, fine, but the american people want us to try to figure out solutions to problems, not just keep relitigating the old problems. four americans tragically died. hillary clinton has taken responsibility, barack obama has taken responsibility to beef up security. what are the republicans trying to do in trying to relitigate this? ben rhodes' memo, because i see white house talking points from time to time, i admit that, too. it was 20 paragraphs, two

sentences. stuff that the cia told them to put in. i don't understand what the big fuss is. but if they want to fight it, let's fight it and let's keep fighting something else. >> the big fuss for republicans is that for all of this time, this white house has said it was not involved in developing those talking points and that it was not about covering up a failure of policy. look, what's done is done. the politics of this, we were in the midst of an election. we're not going to undo those election results. but if politics was played with something involving national security and the lives and deaths of four americans, yes, it is worth getting to the bottom of. >> the senate committee didn't get to the bottom of it. >> they didn't know all the information. that's the point of this memo. this memo was never given to congress. >> i'll give the last 30 seconds to gwen who is sitting there listening. >> i love being silent. we will be talking about the girls in nigeria, we'll be

talking about the outbreak in sudan. there are so many important issues around the world which involves helpless people's lives that can use a little attention. >> i agree with you there. the nigerian girl story is just chilling. i think we can all agree with that. thank you guys so much. fareed zakaria starts at the top of the hour. but first we're getting reports that hundreds of pro-russian activists have stormed police headquarters in ukraine. that's next. whatever business you're in, that's the business we're in. with premium service like one of the best on-time delivery records and a low claims ratio, we do whatever it takes to make your business our business. od. helping the world keep promises. this is the first power plant in the country

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thanks for watching. i'm candy crowley in washington. be sure to set your dvr to state of the union if you can't be here live, and if you missed any part of today's show find us on itunes. just search state of the union. fareed zakaria is next after a check of the headlines. victor blackwell is here this morning. as you know, clippers owner donald sterling banned from the

league over racial recordings. now they say they will appoint a new ceo for the team. this comes after the clippers advance in the playoffs after beating the golden state warriors last night. also, violence is in the city of ukraine. hundreds of pro-russian activists in odessa attacked a police station. i'm victor blackwell. fareed zakaria gps is up next. this is gps, the global public square. welcome to all of you in the united states and around the world. i'm fareed zakaria. the u.s. seems sure that its sanctions against russia will work. few outsiders agree. so what does the u.s. treasury know that we don't? well, i will talk to the man charged with making putin pay a

price. the treasury department's david culp. plus we will track dangerous developments in parts of the mideast, egypt and iraq. i will ask egypt's foreign minister about more than the 1,200 brotherhood muslim supporters sentenced to death in his nation, and about the american government's money in arms that may begin to flow again in egypt. and iraq held an election this week, but the new yorker says it's already clear who won: iran. also, why america's middle class wants t class, once the envy of the world, is no longer number one. but first here's my take. it is long well known that the author of the 700-page best seller capital of the 21st century argues that free markets tend to